Interior Cabinet Secretary, Prof Kithure Kindiki, has announced a significant enhancement in Kenya's passport production capacity, now capable of yielding over 10,000 passports daily. This surge, he revealed, is double the previous daily demand of approximately 5,000 passports.

The upscaling has been made possible through the procurement of two new high-speed printers, each capable of producing 300 passports per hour. With both printers operational, the Immigration Department can now churn out 600 passports hourly, equating to 4,800 passports in an eight-hour workday.

Moreover, the potential output could surpass 10,000 passports daily if the machines operate around the clock, addressing the backlog that has plagued many Kenyan passport applicants in recent years.

This development comes as a boon to the thousands of Kenyans seeking passports on a daily basis, particularly amidst prior delays attributed to insufficient production capacity.

Efforts to streamline passport issuance have been spearheaded by CS Kindiki, who has led pivotal reforms in the Immigration and Citizen Services department. Among these reforms is a commitment to reducing the processing time for passport applications.

In line with these objectives, Kindiki announced that starting from May 1, the processing period would be trimmed to 21 days from the date of application. This timeline is slated to further shrink to a mere three days by September 1, 2024.

Addressing previous bottlenecks, Kindiki affirmed that the government has resolved historical backlog issues and alleviated constraints in the passport supply chain. He noted a significant reduction in pending passports, decreasing from 724,000 in March to less than 50,000, signifying substantial progress in passport processing efficiency.